Dozens held over alleged Turkish coup plot

Probe widens into claims secularists aimed to topple government

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Protesters carry a banner bearing the portraits of leading defendants on trial for allegedly plotting a coup in Turkey during a demonstration outside Silivri prison, west of Istanbul, on October 20, 2008.

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish police detained more than 30 people — including three retired generals — in a widening probe into an alleged plot by secularists to overthrow the Islamic-rooted government, according to reports Wednesday.

The Anatolia news agency reported police detained more than 30 other people suspected of involvement in the plot for questioning in simultaneous raids in six cities Wednesday. Authorities said those detained include senior retired military officers, a retired police chief and a pro-secular writer.

The defendants in the coup plot case, which has added to political uncertainty, are accused of planning assassinations and bombings to sow chaos and force the military to step in.

The military, which has unseated four governments in the last 50 years and views itself as the guarantor of Turkey's secular order, denies any link to the group,
known as Ergenekon
.

Sabih Kanadoglu, who has accused the government of pushing the country toward a "religious dictatorship," was behind a court decision that prevented parliament from electing Abdullah Gul as president in 2007. He was later elected in a referendum.

Last month, Turkey's top appeals court ordered that a trial over the 2006 killing of a top judge in Ankara be merged with the Ergenekon trial, for which hearings are being held daily and which is expected to take months to complete.